I have always wondered how families in the 19th century coped when family members upped sticks and emigrated thousands of miles away with no real prospect of ever returning to these shores. It isn't like it would be today when families are a phone call or a Skype away from being able to catch up with your news and a flight away from responding in an emergency. In those days it would have been a once in a lifetime event ..... irreversible.

This week I want to tell you about a family which split to the two corners of the globe and which, only because we are now so curious about our ancestors, have been reunited by the wonders of the internet and genealogy.

My 3 x great grandfather on my adopted tree, George Wareham, a butcher, died in 1851.

One of his daughter's, Jane Wareham (b1826), married John Noble in London 1852 and they both emigrated to West Maitland, New South Wales almost immediately afterwards.

On 28th September 1854 George's wife, Mary Ann Wareham (senior) (b1795), emigrated to Australia with three other of her eleven children :

Mary Ann Wareham (junior) (b1821)

Jemima Wareham (b1829)

Frances Norman nee Wareham (b1832)

They left London arriving in Sydney, Botany Bay on 13th January 1855. The emigration was arranged as part of the 'Caroline Chisholm Family Migration Scheme' on board the barque Bangalore which had been chartered by The Family Colonization Loan Society.

One other child emigrated to New Zealand :

Eliza Wareham (b1830) - she emigrated with her husband, John Swanston, and their 9 surviving children to Wellington, New Zealand on the "Firth of Forth" arriving 4th July 1878.

I wonder if she ever visited her sisters in Australia ?

Although the majority of Mary's children emigrated, four of her boys remained in England :

George Wareham (b1823) - he was a pawnbroker who later became a toy dealer.

James Wareham (b1827) - he disappeared once he reaches the age of 23 although I will find him eventually.

Edward Alport Wareham (b1838) - he became a missionary and I will be telling his story very shortly.

Where the siblings lived and died

How must Mary have felt, having just lost her husband, journeying to the other side of the world with some of her children, leaving others, one as young as 16, in England ? It's difficult to imagine. What was the thinking behind this ?

With four of her eleven children now in Oz, two others also arrived in about 1855. Although I haven't found which ship they were on it is likely they travelled together :

Sophia Mary Wareham (b1820)

Thomas Beaumont Wareham(b1836) - the only male member of the family to emigrate (strange).

Now we have the internet I have been able to piece together some of the lives of those whose decided to leave Blighty and have been in touch with some of their living relatives ....... probably the first contact one side of the tree has had with the other half for 150 years. So, what became of them ?

Frances was heavily pregnant on the voyage She gave birth to a baby girl, Frances (junior), a week after arrival and went on to have a total of 12 children, all of whom lived. At some point, I may blog about her husband who became one of the leading cabinet makers in Australia ..... not to mention him doing a spot of undertaking.

Jemima married Thomas Bell, from North Shields, in 1865 and may not have had any children.

Mary Ann (junior)married George Broomfield from Essex on Christmas Day 1857 and they had three children together.

Jane, as I mentioned above, was the first to leave - I will be blogging about her very shortly.

Sophia Marywas a draper and had married Archibald Gray in London 1841 before they both emigrated.

They all died in New South Wales. Janedied of typhoid in West Maitland in 1869, aged just 42, and was buried by her undertaker brother in law (Frances' husband) William Norman. Thomas Beaumont died in Ryde in 1880 aged 44 (his story will be interesting when I find out some more about his death in a hospital for the insane).Sophia Marywas 63 when she died in Sydney in 1883. Mary Annwas 69 when she died in Singleton in 1891. Jemima was 63 and died in Redfern in 1892. Frances was 76 when she died, also in Singleton, in 1906.

Now we have the internet I have been able to piece together some of the lives of those whose ancestors decided to leave Blighty and have been in touch with some of their living relatives ....... probably the first contact one side of the tree has had with the other half for 150 years.

If only we could speak to our ancestors I would like to ask Mary Ann Wareham (senior) why she took half her family 9,500 miles away to Australia in 1854 ........ I will be writing more about her particular story soon !

I love your blogs. I am a great granddaughter of Thomas Beaumont Wareham on my mother's side.
I'd love to know what happened to James also. He is mentioned on his mother Mary Ann Line's death certificate in 1857 as still living. I am wondering did the family guess he was still alive or did they actually know because he was in Australia?
If he didn’t come to Australia did he go to New Zealand? William's daughter Emily, husband Frederick Morris and 2 eldest children immigrated to Taranaki, New Plymouth, New Zealand in 1874. Her aunt Eliza Swanston and family arrived in 1878 and her two youngest brothers George and Thomas in 1879.
With all these family movements did James come to Australia or New Zealand?
I have tried to follow this line of thought but it’s near impossible because there are so many James Wareham’s.
Two of Eliza’s sons jumped the pond and came to New South Wales. A few of the next generation of Australian families also jumped across the pond and went to New Zealand.
The family of George and Mary Ann Wareham has certainly got me interested. I have a great deal of admiration for Mary Ann to leave everything and everybody she knew at age 59 to travel half way across the world in a tiny sailing ship to start a new life certainly took lots of guts and stamina. Her daughters and sons founded a dynasty here, although sadly Thomas and Teresa only had 6 Wareham grandsons to carry on the family name.
I have no connection to any of my mother’s Wareham cousins, she and my Aunt were some of the youngest in the family, she spoke of them but I never met any.
Incidentally, on Eliza’s death certificate William Wareham is given as her father. A strange mistake by her children, was William her guardian after her mother left, although she was in her mid twenties? Was she closest to brother William and spoke of him to her children? Or perhaps George (William’s son) was the informant and didn’t think about her having a different father to him? Everything else on the death certificate is correct. Her mother’s name and the informant are not shown. Judy Evans